Effect of dietary organic zinc on commercial broiler performance

The National Research Council (1994) gives the minimum levels for trace minerals that are necessary for optimum productivity and in case of Zn; NRC suggests 40 ppm as minimum required level. In practice, feed manufacturers use much higher concentrations of zinc than specified by NRC (1994) to achieve a maximum performance. Today, large-scale commercial poultry production give rise to environmental concerns, since the excess mineral content in manure can lead to mineral depositions and leads to pollution. Considering the enticing attention of poultry farmers towards the broiler raising with various sources of Zn with higher bioavailability and reduced excretion in the manure. Therefore, it is worthwhile to study the impact of various sources of Zn on the growth performance, carcass characteristics, MT mRNA expression on different tissues and deposition of Zn in the tibia of the broiler chickens. The same was studied and compared to various sources of inorganic Zn such as ZnO and ZnSo4 along with two sources of organic Zn such as Zn-methionine hydroxyl analog (Zn-MHA), Zn-protienate and nano Zn.